The cat was a bear!

I agree with those who felt this episode may not have lived up to the hype of the ads. That and following such a great ep before this, I think there's a bit to be desired. But there is still a lot to enjoy here.

Sydney Price kidnaps Awesome, and it is funny to see Devon so in over his head and scared. Chuck of all people has to be the one playing 'experienced' agent and do some rescuing, which is a fun role-reversal. The writers do a good job of still keeping Chuck as Chuck, so some of the situations he and Devon share escalate in calamity. Chuck is no pro yet, lol. The Buy More got back to its antics in full-swing, with one of the most entertaining schemes yet: a Fight Club! Lester kind of owned in this plot, playing the Tyler Durden role hilariously. The bruises around the work place, the electric fence, calling Morgan 'ass-man'(assistant manager- Morgan's great new position), all of this was very funny. Brandon Routh as Agent Shaw. Now, I didn't like Superman Returns, and he was a big part of that. But he actually seems to fit in the Chuck-verse pretty well. Not sure where they're going with his character, but it's clear there's more to him that we will learn. Could it be that he was once a "Chuck" himself? A former nerd turned professional badass after years as an operative? That's the vibe I got from this character. Either that or Routh is still just a bland actor.

Team Chuck good, Superman bad.

After taking a few slightly-off hours to reestablish the show in its new direction, it's finally full steam ahead for Chuck. Finally, we get to watch Chuck being Chuck (or a newer, badass-ier version thereof), on a less-than-perfect mission, and to see his familiar chemistry with Sarah and everyone else play out without the nuances of them being overtly forced into our faces. It's classic Chuck, and it's good.

In this week's mission, Chuck stands up and grows a pair - however briefly - to protect his new Bro from the Ring, who have confused him for an agent following his full-out tackle of Casey last week. The mission requires him to shoot Agent Shaw, a young CIA operative who specializes in the Ring, and will be taking over Project Bartowski for the time being. ("time being" being 7.5 episodes, but who's counting?) His risky approach to Chuck's Intersect 2.0 training doesn't mesh too well with Sarah, which should be interesting going forward.

While most of this was solid, standard fare, there were a couple of stand-out aspects to CV Operation Awesome. The first was seeing the Captain out of his element, which is always good for a laugh. And he can't tell a good lie? Who knew?!? The second was the rise of Fight Club at the Buy More, so inherently hysterical I'm amazed it took this long to happen.

On the downside, a glaring disappointment exists in the painfully wooden acting of Brandon Routh. Delivering every line of every scene with the same introspective, matter-of-fact whimper, he's not the confident, commanding presence the script clearly called for, nor the type of guy who could plausibly compete with Chuck for Sarah's affections as have superspies of seasons past. Somewhere, a director needed to yell "more Superman, less Clark Kent," but didn't, and knowing Routh will be around in this sorry state for seven more missions, I weep.

When Awesome is taken by the Ring, Chuck goes crazy worrying about him. Sydney Price a member of the Ring has him and ended up mistaking Awesome for Chuck. A new character is introduced to the group as well and in the end Chuck must save Awesome.

This episode was really hyped by the tremendous episode last week and the coming attractions for this week. Overall I think it disappoints, but I do believe it shows us some positive stuff for the coming season.

Chuck feels responsible for Awesome and in the end he feels it's specifically him that must save him. A new member working with the team is introduced, Daniel Shaw played by Brandon Routh. It seems by the end of the episode even Brandon may be hiding personal things about himself.

Angie Harmon plays Sydney Price. Other than a fight with Sarah near the end we really don't see that much of her. A little menacing of Awesome, some shots from a car, and then the final scenes with Chuck. Too bad, she's an entertaining actress. I really expected more of a part.

The Buy More took center stage and had its own Fight Club goin' on for at least a while. The car battery on the metal fence was very funny. Also the whole concept was clever in general. I especially liked Morgan putting down the uprising at the end. He really is getting to be a mature young man.

Very nice final scene with the whole "family" getting together. Poor Casey, Ellie is never going to trust him and he doesn't even know why!

Entertaining, but just not up to the hype the show generatd. May have been slightly better than I rated, but gets a little more of a drop becasue of the last episode and expectations. Thanks for reading...

Captain Awesome that look like 008 and the spy that look like...Chuck. What can go wrong? and once again Chuck save the day by doing things very "un-SPYly".

Chuck is the man now,and he have protect and guild Captain awesome like Sarah and Casey did with him. The Ring got confuse about who is the new top man in the CIA,naturely they think it's Captain awesome. Anyone could make that mistek,come on,who would think a man like chuck is the spy when Captain Awesome is near by. The Ring lost 5 man(/woman) again to Chuck with little help from Casey and Sarah.

This is a overall a good episode,but after the last episode,this one seem little "boring" in "spy life". First this is the first episode I find the "Buymore life" is more fun then "spylife". The "Fightclub" is the high "fun" element in this episode. And I have to say I just love when Chuck "kong fu" Jeff,He is really annoying at time,knowing chuck being chuck I can understand why he don't get mad,but I just love when chuck lost control when Jeff being really annoying again ^^

Spy side of chuck's life is little boring,and I think mostly because I really don't like this agent Shaw(maybe we don't suppost to like him,I did like Bryce). And Brandon Routh action skill is little...always the same face and expression. I'm voteing some Ring agent put him out of his misery.

Sarah and Chuck on/off standoff need a lift. I'm really hoping CIA or NSA got a new "Carina" type aggressive(in way of love^^) "lady" to challenge
Sarah's place in Chuck's heart.

Good introduction for Brandon Routh's character, but overall a fairly average episode.

Now I want to start by saying I did not hate this episode, my belief is that it just was not at the same level as the last 3 episodes. Still a good episode regardless and there were some very good humorous parts in it. Ellie's conversation with Devon about why he was not returning her calls was hilarious.

It was very good to see Chuck's character start to step up more often. And you can still see that it is still the same Chuck, who is willing to put himself in harms way for the people he cares about just like in earlier seasons. Hopefully his failure to flash when he actually needs it has soothed some of the fans who have been believing that the new intersect would completely overrun Chuck.

I will end this with again saying that it was a good episode and if there were more episodes of this caliber later in the season I would be happy, but it was not up there with some of the better episodes.

At last! After 3 more than average episodes, this 4th one resumes with the spirit of seasons 1 and 2!

At last! After 3 more than average, not to say dull and lacking inspiration episodes, this 4th one resumes with the true spirit of seasons 1 and 2!

Fun, action, romance, Buy More parallel story, plots and a newcomer: the perfect mixture is back and everything is there for a promising season 3. More interesting, the characters are perfectly tailored: Awesome realising being a spy isn't funny, Shaw being a professional spy, and Chuck just in the middle.

Fast paced, with many references to other spy films and with a lot of fun: definitively, I hope next episodes to be as good as this one.

Awesome and Chuck and newcomer Shaw! What an impressive collection of spies and not-realy spies. Oh yeah, and there is a fight club at Buy More! What a great episode!

I am so far loving the 3rd season. This whole "no more mister nice spy" is such a fantastic way to make an already great show even better. Even with intersect 2.0 in Chuck, he is still the lovable, goofy guy we all came to love in the first two seasons. But in this episode we really got to see him shine and step up to save Captain Awesome. Whom it was nice to see not be totally "awesome". Plus, you have to admit the whole Buy More fight club subplot was hilarious! The first three episodes have certainly set the bar high for the rest of the season, but with reoccurring guest roles (Routh) and great new guests, I cant wait to see what's next. Who would have thought that the words spies, nerd, comedy, and action could describe such awesome show!

8.7? (Minor Spoilers)

I cry foul!!!!
Personally, I think, this should be higher.
I loved the both plots equally, the tension from the unexpectedness of the main plot and the complete insanity of the sub make for a great episode.
I found myself wanting to yell at Devon for wanting in on the Spy life last week.
We all know what happened to Chuck in season one and we'd hate to see history repeat itself with Devon and this episode proves my point.
Acting like one hell of a reality check, this episode starts by hanging Devon of the side a building tied to an office chair.
It work well for starting up the episode, telling us that Devon is alive and well, while making sure that we understand that this no walk in the park. He is in danger and things are , no! WIll, be getting precarious for AWESOME.
Angie Harmon's portrayal of Sydney Prince also work very well with the setting of the episode. Slightly cold and calculated, meanwhile commanding and firm on Devon and you don't think her a fool for mistaking Devon for the spy in the Family. I guess the Shaw is the last thing I need to address, at this point I've only seen this episode with him in it. I've heard a lot of people say they don't like him and I can't really say much about that because his screen time in this episode was limited, but we'll see!

Operation Awesome is awesome. Great one-liners, nice Fight Club/Steven Seagal references, not to mention Devon's spy-life... Finally, we found something captain Awesome is not so awesome with!

What more could we have asked for? This episode builds a great premise for the ones to follow! Both story-wise and Chuck/Sarah-wise.

Great episode, Buymore scenes are super funny, handler-chuck is awesome, as is Big-dog-Morgan! Also, I liked the fact that we are led to believe that Chuck & Sarah are patching things up, right before Hannah and Shaw mess it all up again.

Captain Awesome is not an awesome spy, and is not much of a liar either!

The scene in the Crystal Towers lobby with Julius and Devon was hillarious, Devon is sooo good at freaking out!

The "Casey being drunk, wet and exposing himself" story?? hillarious! I would have believed the Bear story much easier!

Angie Harmon is so good at being bad, and whilst I still have my doubts for Brandon Routh, I am sure he will convince me of why he was chosen for this part in next week's episode.

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